Nigerian labour leaders have insisted on going ahead with their indefinite nationwide strike starting on Tuesday, October 3, 2023.
Yesterday, aviation and electricity union leaders directed their members to join the indefinite strike to protest the mounting hardships foisted on Nigerians due to the removal of fuel subsidy by the Tinubu administration.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) deputy general secretary, Comrade Chris Onyeka, said the strike will still start on October 3 as planned.
He said: “We are at an advanced stage of the planning and mobilisation of members for the strike. We have also set up a joint committee between Trade Union Congress (TUC) and NLC for proper coordination of the strike. Don’t allow anyone to mislead the general public by what the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) said. If we are going to call off the strike, then we will let the public know.”
It would be recalled that that the NLC had yesterday condemned the reported statement of the AGF who had, yesterday, tried to dissuade the general public and the two unions from the proceeding with the industrial action by describing it as being in clear violation of the judgement of the National Industrial Court.
NLC president, Joe Ajaero, described the AGF’s statement as unwelcome news because he was trying to exhume the same judgement which was buried when he said, through the Ministry of Justice, that “the formal statement had lapsed due to non-diligent prosecution.”